This is a game of political wisdom.
Yan Song was over 60 years old and had been the Prime Minister for more than ten years. Although he looked old and frail, he was getting more and more ruthless with age. Since he had criticized Xu Jie, Xu Jie had become more and more obedient in the past six months, especially since he entered the cabinet. Xu Jie never argued with him and always followed his lead, which made the cabinet his own. Donglou deliberately treated Xu Jie rudely to test him, but Xu Jie was not angry. He even married his niece to Donglou as a concubine. This made Yan Song more and more relieved, and he stopped criticizing Xu Jie.
However, despite this, Yan Song was still somewhat wary of Xu Jie.
The reason is simple.
Xia Yan was Xu Jie's teacher. The two were both teachers and friends, and their relationship was not distant. Xia Yan also recommended Xu Jie.
And Xia Yan was defeated and killed by himself and Lu Bing.
Therefore, Yan Song took the opportunity of the Jiajing Emperor's court meeting to test Xu Jie again to see how Xu Jie would react.
Xu Jie was as respectful as ever, and his answers were consistent with his own. This made Yan Song very satisfied, and he lowered his guard against Xu Jie a little.
What Xu Jie said made sense. The national treasury was empty. Why and how was it empty? No one had more say than the Ministry of Revenue. So everyone turned their attention to the Minister of Revenue, Sun Yingkui.
Even Emperor Jiajing, who was resting with his eyes closed on the dragon throne, opened his eyes and looked at Sun Yingkui.
Facing Xu Jie's question, Sun Yingkui, who was in the center of the line of sight, was not surprised at all. He calmly stepped forward and bowed to the Jiajing Emperor on the dragon throne and the three cabinet elders in the hall. Then he took out the Taicang revenue and expenditure items that he had listed from his sleeve and told the story with reason and evidence: "Your Majesty, and all the ministers, since I entered Kyoto, the annual income of Taicang has totaled more than 5 million taels of silver in taxes, additional taxes, and surplus salt. In addition, there are more than 4 million taels of miscellaneous taxes levied from other places, of which more than 2 million taels were collected from Taicang this year. In terms of expenditure, in addition to the 2.8 million taels of annual tax from various border areas, more than 2.45 million taels were newly added, and more than 8 million taels were needed to repair the border and revitalize the economy. Because the situation at the border is particularly bad, and the expenses at the border need to be increased to more than 6 million, it is true that Taicang is empty."
After Sun Yingkui finished speaking, there was a burst of discussion in the hall. Apparently, the actual situation in Taicang was worse than everyone expected.
"It costs so much..."
"The balance of payments is so large..."
"Taicang's revenue this year is only over 2 million taels, which is not enough to cover expenses..."
... ...
Zhu Ping'an had learned about the tax situation in the Ming Dynasty in modern times, but after hearing more accurate information from Sun Yingkui, he was even more shocked.
Of course, Sun Yingkui was talking about the Taicang Silver Vault. The Taicang warehouse was used to store silver, and there was another granary for the collected grain.
Emperor Jiajing, who was sitting on the dragon throne, could not help but frown after hearing Sun Yingkui's report. The huge cost of Taicang made the already suspicious Emperor Jiajing even more suspicious. He suspected infringement and counterfeiting. However, Emperor Jiajing did not say anything. Being good at scheming, he just narrowed his eyes slightly and scanned everyone.
"Taicang is the purse of our Ming Dynasty, and the Ministry of Revenue is the steward of the purse. Now the purse is deflated, does Minister Sun have any good ideas?" Yan Song's eyes swept across everyone and fell on Sun Yingkui, and he asked slowly.
"Your humble servant suggests increasing the levy. According to the taxation situation in various places in the past, the northern prefectures, Guangxi and Guizhou can be left out, as the land in these places does not produce much grain. Other places can increase the levy based on the wealth of the land, especially the Jiangnan area. As the saying goes, 'When Taihu Lake is ripe, the world is well fed.' These important grain-producing areas can be levied more. According to your humble servant's preliminary estimate, this will bring in more than 1.5 million taels of silver each year." Sun Yingkui replied with a bow.
Increase taxes
When Zhu Ping'an heard this, his brows tightened, and his impression of Sun Yingkui suddenly became bad.
Jiangnan is suffering from the ravages of Japanese pirates, and you still want to impose more taxes!
There were already many Ming people among the Japanese pirates. If we impose more taxes on Jiangnan now, wouldn’t it force some farmers who can’t make a living to take risks and join the ranks of the Japanese pirates
Isn't this the government forcing the people to rebel
Don't you think the Japanese pirates in Jiangnan are chaotic enough? By imposing additional taxes on Jiangnan, aren't you just adding fuel to the fire
Picking up sesame seeds and losing watermelons!
This is Zhu Ping'an's opinion on Sun Yingkui's suggestion. It seems that everyone has a sharp eye. Although Sun Yingkui's talent and ability are still as great as before, his noble character is long gone, and he is left with only a desire to live in peace and go with the flow.
"I'm sorry, I don't agree with what Minister Sun said." At this time, an imperial censor stood up and said passionately.
Zhu Ping'an gave him a thumbs up in his heart for being able to see the shortcomings of Sun Yingkui's suggestions and having the courage to stand up.
However, the next second, Zhu Ping'an became confused and the corners of his mouth trembled.
"As the saying goes, what's worrying is not the lack of taxes but the inequality. The northern prefectures as well as Guangxi and Guizhou are not subject to additional taxes, while the south of the Yangtze River, especially Taihu Lake, has to bear the same amount of taxes. How can this be fair? Wouldn't the world criticize our dynasty's actions? In this case, it would be better to share the taxes equally and impose the same amount in all prefectures across the country." The censor who stood up continued.
"Haha, if I remember correctly, Censor Guo's family is from Taihu, Wu, Jiangnan. Censor Guo said that I was unfair, but I think what Censor Guo said about equal distribution was false, and what he said about reducing taxes for his hometown was true..."
Sun Yingkui smiled slightly, defended himself, and mocked Censor Guo.
"You are slandering me..." Censor Guo blushed.
Then the officials who were on good terms with each other also stood up and spoke for them. For a moment, everyone in the court held their own opinions and started arguing.
Why... ...
After listening for a while, Zhu Ping'an felt speechless about the quarrels in the imperial court. The quarrels among officials were more intense than those among modern internet celebrities. Zhu Ping'an then became distracted and lost in thought.
Zhu Ping'an was an extra-staff observer attending the court meeting. His seat was very close to the side, so if he was distracted, no one would notice unless they paid special attention.
About two minutes later, Zhu Ping'an's distracted eyes fell on a pillar of a hall not far away, and he found a line of words engraved on it. It was a long time ago, so if you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't be able to find it.
Zhu Ping'an's eyesight was much better than that of most people. He squinted his eyes slightly and saw clearly the words engraved on the pillar: "Xu Jie is a villain and will never be employed again."
Zhu Ping'an suddenly became alert.
The font of this line of words is very similar to the font on the note that Emperor Jiajing had passed to him. It's a little immature, but basically the same. Obviously, the words engraved on the pillar were the handwriting of Emperor Jiajing when he was young.
The fonts are connected, with dramatic ups and downs.
From the font, one can seem to see the scene when Emperor Jiajing was furious and wrote these eight words quickly.